03 March 2013

It's gradually been dawning on me that we all need to seize control. I know some of you think I'm wasting my time and money supporting the National Health Action Party. But I don't think I am. I've never been a member of a political party before and, until Eastleigh, I had never been canvassing. It's never too late to learn.

And I have learnt a lot. The hostility shown on the doorstep was an eye-opener. The people of Eastleigh came over as utterly disenchanted with the political process. Who can blame them? I feel the same way. We are in the era of disenchantment. We don't feel we have any control. The politicians just plough on regardless. And their direction of travel is wrong.

The other thing that dismayed me was how the propaganda originating from our masters and spewed out by our complacent and compliant press is actually believed. The badmouthing of the NHS has been so widespread and sustained that the public now think that the good care they themselves may have received has been the exception rather than the rule. You can't overturn entrenched views. Evidence cuts no ice on the doorstep. Politics is about belief.

A comment on my previous post mocks the efforts of the NHA Party in Eastleigh. Mocking is easy. Doing nothing is easy. But trying to do something to improve matters is difficult - especially if you make no progress and are ridiculed. But today I feel that there are signs that the tide is turning. I awoke this morning to news that the prime minister himself is claiming that his is the party of the NHS. Later came a tweet from the Labour Chief Whip in the Lords telling me that "doctors have rumbled the Govts Trojan horse, sneaky regulations that marketise & privatise health care in the NHSby forcing CCT". I'm not sure which planet the Chief Whip's been on over the past year but it's better late than never.

So on a day when five Sunday papers have an NHS story on the front page, two about privatisation, I am heartened that the views of those with genuine concerns are at last being heard. I think the National Health Action Party is having an effect. Don't dismiss it. Maybe you should even consider given it your support.

I'm sorry, but the NHA party will continue to be seen as the invention of elitist doctors wishing to preserve their lucrative fiefdom. If a party emerged led by and representing the victims of disastrous NHS blunders such as Stafford then more people might support it. More and more people are viewing the NHS as a highly dysfunctional organisation rather than some sort of National treasure akin to a religion and are frankly furious that the perpetrators of debacles such as Stafford have so far not been brought to justice.

I thought it was a pretty good result for the NHA Party given that it hasn't been up and running long, that there was such a short timescale in which to prepare,and that all involved are new to campaigning. Additionally I can say from my own experiences of voting in a marginal seat that, even if I prefer a minority party over one of the two main contenders, I will still vote for the one of the larger parties in order to keep the other out. So I think thoughts of only a few caring about the future of the NHS are not necessarily founded. Many still haven't realised what's going on!

I certainly don't see the NHA Party as being the "invention of elitist doctors..." as anonymous does, as I strongly suspect there is more money in private medicine for doctors than there is in the NHS. Whilst the situation at Stafford does need to be fully addressed it is irrelevant to the current emergency i.e. the preservation of a free health service for all at the point of need. Damning the NHS as a whole as a result of anger about Stafford is the equivalent of throwing out the baby with the bath water!

I am a non-medical/non-NHS-working member of the NHA Party because I see the NHS as integral to the well being of the UK and essential for social justice to exist. Whilst I cannot donate any money I can do my bit to raise awareness of what is happening and intend to do so to the best of my ability.

"I am a non-medical/non-NHS-working member of the NHA Party because I see the NHS as integral to the well being of the UK and essential for social justice to exist." - This is a very rose-tinted view of the NHS. The reality is that despite billions being spent on it by theLabour administration it remains a highly dysfunctional institution. For more evidence, read this blog:http://nhscomplaint.wordpress.com/

When you read about the costs of US healthcare for the uninsured in the article bitter pillt you realise the NHS provides a fantastic safety net. Healthcare for all. Free at the point of need. etc etc. But it certainly doesn't provide excellence for all. Hard to see how things will improve with the latest change of labels on the bureaucrats' office doors. When the music stops on this latest round of musical chairs it will still depend on how well we care for those who need care.

There is a lot of bitterness towards the NHS. But you just have to compare to private healthcare systems, such as the US, to see the achievements over the past 50 years in keeping healthcare free at the point of access.